'Very strong presumptions' that wreckage found was from MH370

Xinhua, August 6, 2015

Deputy Paris Prosecutor Serge Mackowiak announced Wednesday night in Paris that there are "very strong presumptions" that the plane wreckage found on French Reunion Island was from the missing flight MH370.

According to Mackowiak, the representatives from Boeing have confirmed that the flaperon, which was found on French Reunion Island, "came from a Boeing 777 due to its technical characteristics."

"Representatives of Malaysia Airlines have provided elements of the technical documentation of flight MH370, which allowed a comparison between the part examined by experts and the flaperon of flight MH370," explained the deputy prosecutor at a press conference.

After several hours' identification in a military lab in Balma, Toulouse suburbs, the deputy Paris prosecutor declared that there are "very strong presumptions" that the piece of plane wreckage found came from the missing flight MH370, without confirming.

He also said that further analyses would be conducted on Thursday, and he couldn't specify "at what time the results will be revealed".

However, just before the press conference of the Deputy Paris Prosecutor, Malaysian Prime Minister confirmed that the wreckage comes from the missing MH370.

"Today, 515 days since the plane disappeared, it is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts have conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Reunion Island is indeed from MH370," he announced.

According to Xinhua journalists on site, the investigators and experts from France, Malaysia, Australia and Boeing participating in the identification of the probable missing MH370 wreckage arrived Wednesday afternoon in a military laboratory in Balma, Toulouse suburbs.

The debris, found on Reunion Island on Wednesday last week is about 2-2.5 meters long, and will be checked by experts at the military-run General Directorate of Armaments (DGA) in Toulouse suburbs.

The flight, a Boeing 777-200, went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, and a total of 239 passengers on board, most of them Chinese nationals.